Sunday, September 28, 2014

I did a 5K last night with my running buddy, Jen - she ran, I walked. It was a fun race. All the swag bags had glow sticks and a blinking bracelet, so all the runners and walkers were lit up nicely in the dark. It was in a small town and there were at least 200 people taking part. Pretty good turnout for a first event. The course was a little dark in spots, probably a little sketchy for a fast runner but not much of a problem at my pace. Awards were given for the first place male and female runners, and the first place male and female walkers. I was the fastest male walker, hence the medal in the photo. I might have been fastest walker overall. Not bad for a guy whose training has consisted mostly of painting his house. Of course I'm a little sore this morning but it's worth it. Before the race started they had already raised $4000 for Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis and they were having an after race party at a local business that had a $5.00 cover charge, that money going to Riley's as well.

Nice night to be out getting some exercise, good company, good cause, and a medal. Can't beat it.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Been getting a whole lot of nothing done on the bike the last few days but I've been kicking ass on the house painting. I've got just a little bit left on the siding and some trim painting that requires the long extension ladder as well as a step ladder I need to drag up on the roof. Not the most fun job but the house is looking good.

I also did a little work on the big doors of the new barn. When I trimmed out everything else on the barn, I ran out of aluminum before wrapping the boards along the sides of the openings. I had enough to do the top but not the sides. Also, the aluminum is not supposed to come in contact with treated lumber for some reason. While I pondered that, two years have gone by with the openings looking like poo, what with the scab lumber around the opening to prevent the weather from blowing in and nails only partially driven in so I could take them off easily later on when I got around to finishing them up. Anyway, I took the scabs off, got two coats of paint on the treated lumber to keep it from reacting with the aluminum and screwed on a couple of pieces of the brick mold I'm using to see how it was going to look. Looks good even it if doesn't get wrapped in aluminum. I want to make a couple of pieces for the fly rafters one of these days, however, so I'll get that figured out, buy another roll of aluminum and rent the brake again. I can do that most any time it's not raining. Doesn't have to be warm but I'd like to be able to check that one off the list this year.Get outside and enjoy the weekend while we've got all this great weather.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

How much better could this $1.7 billion (BILLION!) be spent in sending young people to trade schools? In these places, people could learn critical skills like "Stop texting on the job" or "Show up to work on time" or "Pull your pants up" or "Your are not entitled to a CEO's salary and a corner office at age 22."

I also received an e-mail from Wood magazine containing this:

As more U.S. schools sacrifice vocational programs and shop classes in favor of a pure college-prep focus, it falls to woodworking enthusiasts like us to bring about the next generation of woodworkers.

Seems like everyone with a little bit of common sense sees the importance of vocational education and the harm that will occur if programs are ended.. STEM (click here for a little STEM propaganda, oops, I mean definition) seems to be the main focus of career education these days, and while I'm certainly not opposed to anyone wanting to pursue a career as an engineer or a scientist, the students I most often had in class definitely had no interest in those fields. What they wanted to do was build things. Not so much design or invent, but make things while standing up - never really thought about that before but when you think about it, it's a pretty good way to define the difference in types of careers. Plumbers, carpenters, roofers, welders, chefs, machinists, game wardens - stand up jobs. Engineers, scientists, mathematicians, accountants - sit down jobs. Obviously, this is a rather simplistic way to choose a career path but sometimes simpler is better. Guidance counselors could just ask the kid if he/she wants to work standing up or sitting down. If you want to work standing up choose a career from this list. If you want to work sitting down, pick one from this other list. Got a little off track there on what I had originally intended to say but I like it. Stand up versus sit down. Might be on to something here.Sorta related to my original thought is the Lincoln Electric program for educational facilities. A school can order welding rods for as low as a $1/lb, get deep discounts on other hardgoods, and have access to educational videos. If you know of any school that is teaching welding that is not already affiliated with this program, please pass the info along. Likewise if you wanted to start or expand a program, this could really help. If you're trying to run a welding program, this is BIG. Shop Teacher Bob says well done and thank you to Lincoln Electric.Been getting a little painting done on the house, working on the bike, doing the lab tech job, and teaching welding. All stand up kind of jobs. Must make me a stand up type of guy, don't you think? The more I think about it, the more I like the stand up job description. Nice alternative to "hands on". Maybe I should quick get a copyright. At least it would prove that I do have the occasional original thought. Enough of this silliness. There's painting to be done.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Busy day yesterday with some running around and an eye doctor appointment but I was still able to get the heads on the Sportster. The bolts still need to be torqued down and the valve lash adjusted but that was a big step, at least psychologically. Still plenty to do but one step closer.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

I love that old stuff. In twenty years when I finish a couple of projects, I'll see about building myself some kind of cool van/transporter. In the meantime, it's full speed ahead on the Sportster.

Went to the dealer yesterday and they had the washer for the pushrod tube and the head gaskets, in stock and only seven bucks total! How you gonna complain about that, eh? Now I should have everything I need to put the top end together, sorta. The rocker shafts are supposed to have a acorn nut to hold them into the rocker boxes but I don't have those. Any fine thread nut would work to get me going but since I sprung for chrome acorn nuts to hold the jugs down, I think I'll see about ordering in a set of chrome nuts and the whatever the hell they're called on the other end of the shafts as well. Since I've got plenty to do on the wiring and I need to finish hooking up the clutch release and the front brake, I'll work on that stuff and if I need to order anything else in, I can get it all at the same time.

Ideal weather for house painting, though. Plus, they're starting to pick corn around here so that means summer's officially over as far as I'm concerned. Of course this time the calender seems to agree with me, with yesterday being the autumnal - we don't say fall around here - equinox. So that means it's time to get a few more things tightened up around the shack and maybe move the BSA down the basement so I can work on it over the winter. Definitely not going to sit on my hands all winter like I did last year.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Busy weekend around the shack. I got a 20 ton load of stone for the lane and the lady truck driver did a pretty fair job of tailgating it out except for a spot where the stone didn't fall down against the gate for a few seconds leaving a blank spot. I got the tractor out and managed to push some into the blank spot but it also pushed some out into the grass along the edges. Plus, the truck was wide enough that it was dropping it out the sides of the tailgate into the grass as well. That called for the grounds crew to report to work, meaning me, of course. Took about three hours with the tractor, wheelbarrow, rake and shovel to get things where I wanted them but only two days to get the kinks out of my back.

I went out to the shop Saturday night to put the heads on the bike only to run into a couple of snags. First up was a missing washer that goes in the pushrod tube/cover. The tubes are a two piece affair with cork seals, spring, keeper, and washer. Since the pushrods are outside the motor, the spring loaded pushrod tubes allow you to lift them up to make adjustments to the pushrods inside. Since I could only find three washers, I figured I'd at least get one head bolted up and then hit the dealer Monday. Then I ran into snag number two.

The head gasket holes don't line up with the holes in the cylinder head. If you look closely at the photo you can see the holes in the gasket are out too far to get the head bolts through. The center hole is also larger in diameter. According to the parts book, there was a change during the model year for '73. I don't know if I've got an early or late gasket or an early or late cylinder head. I do know they aren't compatible, however. So in addition to the washer for the pushrod tube, I'm going to see about a couple of head gaskets. I could probably use the old ones, but I would like to know what I've got, just the same.

I did manage to squeeze a little painting in between the raindrops but nothing like what I wanted to get done. Since I was stuck on both the bike and the painting, I did a little prototyping on a clamp project I need for my wooden boat - certainly not a priority project but I can't really proceed on it until I get a few clamps with a throat depth of at least 5 inches. I've got three of the cheap Harbor Freight clamps and six more on the way. Six of them were only twenty bucks, including shipping. I'm going to make some extension pieces to slip on the sliding part of the clamp and some new bolt on ends for the fixed end. I'm going to try out my design making them from soft wood. If the idea works like I hope it will, I'll make them out of hardwood. They don't need a lot of clamping pressure but I need several of them when I glue and rivet the side planking together. I'd like to get a few more planks on the boat before it gets too cold to work with the adhesive. It also looks like I've got another woodworking project for a family member that'll be coming my way soon. I've been trying not to take on any more work but this one has to do with a rocking chair and a baby. Can't say no to this one.

Have a good week - I'll go in search of head gaskets and pushrod tube washers.

Friday, September 19, 2014

I came home from work the other night and saw that I had caught what I think to be the varmint that has been chewing on the truck wires. He was running back and forth in the cage but since it was late, I figured I'd "take him for a ride" in the morning. The poor little guy either had a heart attack over night or had run himself to total exhaustion. Regardless, I took him down the road about a mile or so to a nice wooded area and cut him loose. Now I can fix the fuel pump wires again.

Harley parts came in the mail yesterday so I can get back on that project and the weather's good for painting, at least today. Should be able to do a little of both this weekend. And maybe find the break in the truck wires and get that soldered up.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The girls seem to have taken to their new life in confinement - they've started laying eggs. Now if the Zombie Apocalypse comes, even though the garden has gotten away from me a bit, I'll be eating some nice veggie omelets. Of course now that there's only two chickens and there's two of us here, they'll have to be heavy on the veggies and light on the eggs.

I couldn't find the "high" nuts I wanted locally to fasten the jugs to the crankcase. I called the Fastenal store that's only about a mile from the college and that went about like most of my phone conversations go when I'm looking for something a bit out of the ordinary. I tell the guy I'm looking for 3/8 fine thread nuts that are taller than standard like they use on "U" bolts for leaf springs, since this seems to be the most common usage of the high nuts. I hear him turning pages like he's looking something up in a catalog or maybe he's just thumbing through a magazine. Anyway, he tells me all of their nuts are about the same height. I didn't bother telling him that in addition to the high nuts, there are coupling nuts that are longer still and jam nuts that are shorter. I went on-line and looked up Fastenal and they, of course, sell high nuts along with many other types but when I typed in a store search, the local store didn't stock them anyway. At least I learned I can check to see what's in stock before calling or running over there to buy something they don't have or getting frustrated by some knucklehead who's supposed to be the authority but doesn't know diddly.

Next step was the J&P catalog. They've got them and they're shiny too. They also have wrist pins, so I ordered a couple of those. I pulled the one back out and measured it and it's about .001" under where the rod goes. Even with a new pin it might be just a little loose still but it'll be much better. It should only have about .0015" clearance total so taking an extra grand out will make a big difference.

Working on assembling the rocker boxes now. The previous owner painted them but didn't mask off the holes for the rocker shafts so I need to clean the paint out of the holes. Also the first one of the shafts I tried to fit up had the threads on the end a bit too big in diameter to fit the hole. The shaft has a center hole machined in the end of it. I'm guessing that a center punch was used to drive the shaft out of the rocker box and it spread the threaded end out about .010". Just enough so a nut won't start easily and the shaft won't fit easily into the hole. I filed the thread down and ran a die over it - probably have to do the same with the rest of them as well. Not a big problem, just a little time consuming. According to the manual, if the engine is in the frame, the rear cylinder needs to have the rocker box bolted on to the head in order to have enough clearance to fit. I'll get them both, front and rear, rocker boxes bolted up to the heads and then bolt the assemblies down after the wrist pins and nuts get here.

Done!

Next step is wait for the mailman. The parts have been shipped so they should be here by Friday - Saturday at the latest. In the meantime, it's good weather for painting, so I'll try to get a little more of that done before the rain comes back.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Getting down to business right here - jugs, pistons and rings. The second compression ring is the gap-less type, top compression ring is conventional one piece. I checked the end gaps and most everything was good as is. Two of the rings took a quick swipe with a file to get the gaps within spec. I also remembered to check which way the pistons should be oriented prior to installing them. Valve pockets face each other for intake valve clearance. There's a little excessive clearance between the piston pin and the connecting rod but not much I can do about that other than buying a new set of pistons. Can't see that happening right now.

Here are the pistons in the cylinders ready to be bolted down. The nuts holding the cylinders down are supposed to be taller than normal, like you would use on a U-bolt for a leaf spring. I went through the boxes and bags of parts and didn't see anything that looked like that - didn't see a set of eight plain Jane ones either. I'll run uptown this morning and see if the auto parts or hardware store have any.

If you look in the lower right corner of the photo you can see the new breather tube. The stock one was looking a little shabby so I sprung for a chrome one. Nice and shiny but didn't fit initially. I had to file a bit to get it to thread up in the cover and the top bend was not bent enough. I bent that a bit more and added a second bend below it to match the case profile. Looks pretty snazzy now. On the left side of the photo is the new sprocket. I need to make a tool for holding the sprocket while tightening up the nut on the countershaft. Surly has an old piece of chain I can slice up to make a tool that wraps around the sprocket. I'll talk to him about that or I could make a spanner with a couple of pins in it to match up with the holes in the sprocket.

While I had the carbs out I checked things out a little closer. The stock one that came with the bike initially appears to be a 38mm - the bore is tapered inside. The other factory carb is a 37mm, so they are both smaller than the 1-7/8" on the S&S but the S&S does have the restrictor. I was fiddling with the S&S and could see that the accelerator pump rod wasn't doing anything so I took things apart to see what was going on. Just stuck from some gasoline that had turned to varnish. As long as I was piddling with things, I cleaned the rest of it up and checked out the main jet. It's a 64. Don't know if that's good or not, not having any experience with these things but I've got a number to start with.

I also took a look at the head gaskets. The previous owner had some thinner ones he saved because they'll give a little more compression than the ones in the gasket set -.017" versus .0325". I don't know how much difference there would be in the compression ratio between the thick and the thin but I'm thinking for ease of starting, thicker is better.

So no painting yesterday, in spite of the good weather for it. I really wanted to get something done on the bike. I've been thinking, I might not even try to light this thing off this year. By the time I get it all together it's going to be pretty late in the season. Not much sense in pouring gas in it and adding acid to the new battery just to let it sit for six months.Of course I could just hook some jumper cables up to something else and it's not that tough to drain the gas tank and the carb. I would like to hear it run. If nothing else just to know it will run so I can have it ready for next Spring.

Depending on the weather, painting schedule and missing hardware, I'm going to try and have the top end buttoned up this week.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

As mentioned in the last post, I've got the bed extension for the mini-lathe all buttoned up. I've got the rack for the cutting tools, the sharpening set-up is done - nothing holding me back from turning out some turnings except time and talent.

Went out into the shop before I went to the gym and drug all of the carbs out of the box so I can start figuring out what I'm going to do to get gas and air into the engine in a controlled fashion. The bike had the S&S on it when the previous owner got it. The one on the left is the factory, the one to the right of the S&S is one the previous owner was planning on running, the one on the far right is a junk version of the same thing.

The S&S appears to be a "Super B" which is listed as an 1-7/8" bore. The stock is an 1- 21/32 (42.5mm) which is about .201" smaller than the S&S but the S&S has a tapered reducer on the mouth of the carb that makes it smaller than the stock one. It actually tapers in to reduce the bore diameter and then tapers back out to make a smooth transition to the 1-7/8" diameter before the butterfly.

So I've got several choices here. I can run the stock carb and the oval air cleaner. I can run the other factory carb with the stock air cleaner, I can run the S&S with the teardrop air cleaner, or I could run one of the factory carbs with an air cleaner of my own manufacture. The S&S filter is pictured on the left above. It's a K&N which would make it readily available. The one on the right has a John Deere part number but it's for a Kohler engine. The diameter is comparable with the K&N but is about a 1/2" narrower. Depending on what I choose for a carb, I could make a cute little aluminum air cleaner using either of the two filter elements. Now that the wood lathe is running, I could even make a form and try my hand at spinning something. I'll be thinking about carbs and air cleaners until I'm actually ready to bolt one on and then it'll probably be the S&S anyway. Easy enough to change if I don't like it. I would like to try spinning something, however.

I finished painting the south side of the house yesterday, at least the ground floor. The weather was cool and mostly cloudy, so a good time to paint the southern exposure. Might do a little more painting today, might not - want to get something more done on the bike but the cool temps are a reminder that winter is on the way. Practically speaking, painting the house should be higher up on the list of priorities than finishing the bike but being practical has never been a failing of mine.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Saw this poster here with the Rex Beauchamp name on it, which led to this:

When you talk about backing it in to a corner - this is how it's done. This, in a round-about sort of fashion, led to this:

Surly's got this place on his to-do list. The photo is from here. I didn't go too deep into this blog but lots of motorcycle stuff, including iron head Sportsters. I'll have to scope it out further when I have a bit more time.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, more rain = more mowing. Sharpened the blades and threw a new air cleaner on the mower, then mowed the front yesterday. Will do the back today when I get home from the gym. Also ran the weed-whacker a bit yesterday and got the lathe extension lined up and bolted down. It took a bit of filing and fitting but I'm set to turn. I've had a leak on the patio doors on the upstairs of the new barn basically since the barn was finished. The doors got twisted, as you can imagine, when the barn blew down. I think I cured that the other day as well. I'll know next time a hard rain comes from that direction. With what we've been experiencing of late, shouldn't have long to wait. Crazy weather this summer - temps in the forties last night, in fact.

Sportster parts showed up the other day so it'll be a coin toss as to work on the bike or paint the house this weekend. Maybe I can squeeze in a bit of both. Definitely need to work on both. This working four days per week stuff needs to stop. It's going to take me a long time to get caught up at this rate but it's paying the freight on the projects.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The photo was labeled as an Aermacchi - Metisse. Not much to go on as far as identifying the power plant with it hidden behind the fairing, but seeing the back part of the frame I knew at a glance it was a product of the Rickman brothers. Fillet brazed, nickle-plated frames with workmanship of the highest order. Sweet.

Worked on the Sportster just a bit yesterday. Had to get a blood test in the morning to keep an eye on the lipids and the A1-C. You'll worry about that crap when you get older too. Or you could take better care of yourself when you're young, so you won't have to worry about it when you get old. Regardless, after coming home and grabbing a bite, I installed the new points and condenser and ran the new wire for the coil. I also piddled around with a couple of non-essentials like polishing the chrome cover for the battery. The piece around the sides of the battery cleaned up nicely but the lid has the chrome about worn through to where you can see copper underneath. All part of that "triple chrome" plating, don't you know. Looks like a good place to put a sticker to me. Couldn't work on it for too long because I was trying to squeeze in some more mowing between the raindrops before I went to work. Not much to report there but it's something.

I checked out the schedule for the Spring semester machining classes and the one I'd like to take they offer in the middle of the day. If I get lucky, I could work that in between my teaching assignments on the same days. I'm going to talk to my boss and see what he's got for me next semester. Might just work out.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Spent most of my energy over the weekend working on the chicken coop. I lost another chicken the other night when it didn't come home to roost. Lost several more earlier this summer when they got caught in the corn field when the sun went down and they decided to become involved with something slightly higher up the food chain. So the two remaining pullets have gone from free range birds to yard birds. The picture above is not the best, and it was taken before the job was completed, but I painted the trim, put new poultry netting over the top to keep the chickens in and the hawks out, plus I used some sheet metal I had salvaged from the old barn around the bottom to keep anything from burrowing under the fence and, hopefully, going through it. I liked letting the girls out during the day but I see no reason to support the local raccoon population. They're doing just fine on their own. I suppose a chicken tractor would be a good summer alternative. I might consider that for next year.

Keeping the varmints in check can be a real chore. Mice, squirrels, raccoons, coyotes, skunks, deer, mink, woodchucks, moles, 'possums - we've got them all and all of them have caused some type of issue around here at one time or another. Except the skunks. Fortunately we, or the dogs/cats, haven't had any run-ins with those but you can tell they're around. I did catch a few mice in the sticky traps I placed under the hood of the pickup truck and I rid the world of a piney squirrel over the weekend. I'm going to continue with the traps for a few more days before trying to fix the truck. I remember reading that most every animal is instinctively aware of and afraid of lions, so lion poop will keep other animals away. If the circus ever comes to town, I'll have to get myself a truck load and spread it around- if the truck will start, that is. I did learn that I can haul 2x4's in the little clown car if you fold the seat down - you can even close the deck lid if they're just 8 footers.

Off to run some errands and by the time I come back the dew should be off the grass enough that I can mow again. Need to do it today because it's supposed to rain again tomorrow. At least it's not snow.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

The grinder jig came the other day. It's now installed and ready for me to dull up so lathe tools. It's basically the same as the Wolverine/OneWay set-up like I used at the Marc Adams school and that I bought for the Woodshop at the high school but is made by PSI instead. Seems to be well made and it was quite a bit cheaper. I can't see me working on the mini-lathe all day, every day, so it should last me a lifetime. Of course, at my age I don't even buy green bananas any more. I still need to level and fasten down the lathe bed extension but other than that, I'm ready to turn.

I broke down and bought a good cordless drill the other day. Actually, the Missus said she throw in half for my birthday present, so here we are. Home Despot had the two-fer of drill and impact driver for a decent price, so that's what I went with. The impact driver has a chuck set up for the 1/4" hex shank tools. I don't know how often I'll have use for that but I bought a 3/8" square drive adapter for it so I can use it as an impact wrench for bolting things up. Plus that gives me a spare battery for the drill. I also bought the 45 piece tool bit set in the photo to just keep in the bag with the drill. Menards had the set for $2.99. Pretty much everything a guy needs for driving screws for three bucks? Yeah, why not.

Now it's back to the mowing, painting, Sportstering.

Have a good weekend. Weather here's going to be fine. Get outside and enjoy it!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Got back on the Sportster project yesterday for a bit. Bolted up the gearcase after installing the shifter shaft bushing and the seal for the ignition drive. Hope to hell all that stuff is in the right place. I timed the breather when I bolted the oil pump on and it looks like the cams have all the index marks lined up like they should be. I clamped a new oil vent line on to the inside of the cover and threaded a new wire through for the points. Also bolted on the generator and the tach drive. So that's another little step closer. I also ordered in a couple of more parts, including a new 20T countershaft sprocket. Next up are the piston and jugs. That'll be weather dependent. I need to mow again and get a little more painting done on the house. Supposed to be a hot one today - better day for mowing than painting, especially since I'm working the south side of the shack.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

I went out to the woodshop to fix a footstool for the Missus the other day and decided I really should get scooting on getting the shop a little more ship shape. So instead of working on the Sportster, I spent a little time doing just that. Seems to have been time well spent. Got the footstool done and made some progress towards achieving my goal of actually having all the tools and equipment operational and under one roof.

Persimmon Egg turned from one of the branches that was broken off the big persimmon tree in the storm that came through about a month ago. I've got a much bigger branch I saved so I turned the egg just to see how the persimmon turned, grain pattern, etc. It's still pretty green but turned like butter with a nice close grain. I put a little bit of green wood goo on it to keep it from splitting when it dries out. It should soak in the stuff for a while for best results but I'm just playing here.

I ordered a grinding fixture for sharpening the lathe tools so I figured I might as well get moving on setting up the grinder and making a rack for the lathe tools. The grinder is just sitting on the bench for right now. I'll fasten it down when I mount up the fixture bases. The set-up is right next to the wood lathe, so it should be handy. Jimmy found the drawing he made of the Indian Clubs from the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame, so I want to get going on those. Plus, I've got a project for his dad that's going to be a real test of my woodworking skills. I'd like to get that done before the snow flies - be nice to have everything set up like I want regardless. Even better would be having the sides of the boat project put together before it gets cold. That's taking up a lot of floor space.

Here's the beginning of the rack for the lathe tools. I don't have a drill press in the wood shop yet so I bored all the holes with the brace and bits of various sizes. The slotted hole on the left I did the old school way as well - bored a hole on each end of the slot and then cut between the holes with a coping saw. The wood is a piece of 5/4 decking. Not the best for the bits. The chips have a tendency to wrap up around the bit rather than feed out of the hole cleanly, but if I backed the bit out and cleaned things out about half way through the hole, it went pretty smooth.

Sketch for my outfeed table on the table saw. The saw table top is only 20" wide, so I'm going to get a 48" x 48" piece of particle board or something with some type of laminate covering and wrap three side of the saw. That will give me another 14" of flat surface on both sides of the saw as well as about 24" of surface on the outfeed. The saw top has some holes for mounting extension wings so I'll bolt an angle to the sides and rest the particle board/laminate on the angle to keep it flush with the top of the saw. Put a few braces underneath and some legs on the corners and I'll be in business. That might have to wait a bit until I get the truck running again so I can drag the piece of particle board home. I also need to pick up a couple of pieces of something, maybe MDF, to make a couple of sleds for the table saw. For certain jobs they make things just so much faster and safer, it's really foolish not to have them.